Plating of Femoral Shaft Fractures

Treatment of the femoral shaft nonunion with double plate fixation and bone grafting: A case series of 14 patients

“…Internal fixation can achieve a high union rate. However, there is still a high complication rate of femoral shaft fractures including plate or screw breakage, implant loosening; refracture after plate removal, nonunion, and infection [3]. Femoral nonunion is an economical and emotional burden for the patient, as well as a treatment challenges for the orthopaedic surgeons.…”

“…Intramedullary nailing or open reduction with plate fixation can achieve a high union rate of almost 99% [1,2]. However, there was a high complication rate of 24%, including implant failures such as plate and screw breakage, internal fixator loosening, refracture after plate removal, nonunion, and infection [3]. Femoral nonunion is a functional and economical challenge for the patient, as well as a treatment dilemma for the surgeon, since the causes of the nonunion are complex and multiple factors are involved.…”

Effectiveness of plate augmentation for femoral shaft nonunion after nailing

“…However, there was a high complication rate of 24%, including failure of plates and screws, refracture after plate removal, fracture near the end of the plates, nonunion, and infection. 3 Femoral shaft nonunion after intramedullary nailing is not common. There are several strategies used to treat such a condition, depending on the nature of the nonunion.…”

Plating of Femoral Shaft Fractures: the Experience in an African Teaching Hospital

“…There were four cases of deep infection (2.5%t), all responded to plate removal coupled with Belfast technique of treating chronic osteomyelitis [26]. The complication rate of 5.7% is low when compared with 15-30% reported by other authors [8,21,27,28] but compares to 6.3% reported by Cheng [9] & 7% by Geissler [15]. The low complication rate in our study could be explained by (1) use of Broad DC plate (2) adhering to surgical techniques as advocated by Muller [14] (3) cancellous bone graft in those with insufficient cortical support (4) full weight bearing been delayed for an average of 12.5 weeks (5) fracture fixation led by consultant orthopaedic surgeon, the authors were involved in all the cases.…”